A River Running By, by Millie Vigor

A River Running By, by Millie Vigor

When I wrote Sweet Sorrow, the story of young lovers Garnet and Dorrie, torn apart by WW2 and the difficult lives they led before they could be reunited, I hadn’t thought to write a sequel. It was only when Garnet, injured and scarred, both externally and internally, was finding it difficult to settle down to civilian life that I realised peace was not going to be found again in a matter of weeks. And that is why I wrote A RiverRunning By.

In the 1950s, men were still considered to be the breadwinners, the women to stay at home and care for the house and children. But Dorrie, who had to make a living for her and her child while Garnet was away, had turned her land into a market garden, a healthy business. Garnet, with no job and no money, is acutely conscious of his penniless state, and this magnifies his struggle to prove himself and reintegrate.

A River Running By follows the highs and lows of the progress of our two in trying to come to terms with their life as it is now. Sitting on a bench by a river that runs by their garden, Dorrie says, ‘Love is like a river. It starts small, grows, goes over rocks and waterfalls, until it finds the quiet reaches. Have we found the quiet, Garnet?’